Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s intervention on the Food Security Act seems to have done the trick. The government has now agreed to provide 35kg of foodgrain every month to roughly 8.5 crore families living below the poverty line. The empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by Pranab Mukherjee, will meet on Friday and besides this will also consider providing 11.7kg of rice to those living above the poverty line. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia met the expenditure and food secretary on Thursday in order to finalise the panel’s recommendations to the EGoM.